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Europe

Europe faces an interesting set of immigration challenges and opportunities: Demographic pressures as many European societies age, a lively and at times tense policy and political debate over questions of identity and immigrant integration, and a unique policy environment that has knit 28 European countries together with regards to the management of outer borders, asylum, and other immigration-related topics. MPI has long conducted research and analysis of European policy on topics ranging from labor mobility and border security to immigrant integration, citizenship, and foreign qualifications recognition, which can be found below.

As the European Union seeks to implement a Common European Asylum System, these publications and multimedia resources from MPI and MPI Europe examine asylum policy and humanitarian flows to Europe and elsewhere around the world.

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A number of interlocking concerns have emerged in recent months regarding the rights of mobile EU citizens, fueled in part by euroskeptic parties (such as the UK Independence Party), and more hard-line anti-immigration parties such as the Party for Freedom (PVV) in the Netherlands.

This year has seen greater focus by policymakers in countries around the world on the balance between two enduring, complex migration management imperatives: maintaining secure and credible borders while separating out unauthorized immigrants from the most vulnerable populations in need of humanitarian protection, particularly those seeking refuge from conflict and persecution.

The murder of an anti-fascist rapper in 2013 dealt a severe blow to Greece's extremist, virulently anti-immigrant political party Golden Dawn, whose popularity had been increasing (relatively unchecked) since 2010. The party, which rejects the neo-Nazi label that many have applied to it, provoked a national outcry in September after a party sympathizer confessed to killing Pavlos Fyssas.

This article examines common challenges and factors influencing the development of local labor-market integration initiatives targeting immigrant youth, based on four city case studies conducted in the United States and the European Union.

The region encompassing Central and Eastern Europe as well as the former Soviet Union is the source of a sizeable share of international migrants today, yet many of these countries' development efforts do not benefit from strong diaspora ties.

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This event marks MPI Europe's official launch in Brussels. To inaugurate the new office, MPI Europe will host a panel discussion to explore what is driving societal discontent in Europe, the role immigration plays in this, and why there is a growing perception that immigrant integration efforts are failing.

Over the past year, MPI has partnered with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to examine how diasporas contribute to – or detract from - development efforts in their countries of origin. MPI and USAID have published an edited volume of the research. Please join us for the release of the book where speakers will discuss new thinking on the role of diaspora engagement in U.S. foreign and development policy.

MPI's symposium on citizenship examined immigrant civic and political participation, the notion of local voting rights for noncitizens, the concept and practice of dual citizenship, and the role of citizenship in immigrant integration.

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This discussion includes a status of preparation of the 2012 GFMD summit, including a discussion on the possible ideas and projects presently being contemplated that would fully integrate migration into the development framework, with a special focus on Africa.

This event marks MPI Europe's official launch in Brussels. To inaugurate the new office, MPI Europe will host a panel discussion to explore what is driving societal discontent in Europe, the role immigration plays in this, and why there is a growing perception that immigrant integration efforts are failing.

This Migration Policy Institute event was held to discuss the release of MPI'sbook, Migration and the Great Recession: The Transatlantic Experience, which reviews how the financial and economic crisis of the late 2000s marked a sudden and dramatic interruption in international migration trends.

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Recent Activity

Against the backdrop of an aging population and shrinking labor force, German policymakers have been giving greater priority to policies that ensure that immigrants are able to make their way into middle-skilled work. This report assesses recent policy developments designed to facilitate the labor market advancement of new arrivals in Germany.

A discussion on the extraordinary boom in investor immigration, including the rapidly expanding EB-5 visa in the United States, Malta’s controversial “cash for citizenship” policy and a host of programs across Europe and the Caribbean.

The economic crisis of 2008 hit Spain with a disproportionate effect on those in temporary work, revealing underlying gaps in the policy framework meant to support the inclusion of both immigrants and other vulnerable individuals in the Spanish labor market. This report assesses how well recent reforms are filling these gaps and helping immigrants and other disadvantaged workers move into middle-skilled jobs.

Despite a robust mainstream workforce development system offering job-search and other employment assistance to newcomers, immigrants in France are more likely to be unemployed or in low-skilled work than their native-born peers. This report examines how well recent changes to integration policy, in combination with mainstream employment policies, are supporting migrants' integration and advancement in the labor market.

Immigrants in the United Kingdom find work easily thanks to a flexible labor market, but often have trouble moving up the ladder into middle-skilled work. This report examines how workforce and integration policies affect immigrant workers in the United Kingdom.

A port city connecting the Netherlands with major trading partners, Rotterdam is, and has long been, home to migrants from around the globe. But the recent rise in temporary forms of migration presents new challenges for Rotterdam’s integration policy.

This report examines the development of immigrant integration policies in Denmark over the past 15 years, specifically focusing on the centralization of Danish integration policies and exploring differences between policy frameworks at national and local levels, where certain areas have developed less restrictive and more accommodating policy responses to immigrant integration.